Articles
Articles in major media and academic publications written by New Silk Road Monitor Editor Afshin Molavi.
China’s Global Trade Profile and Economic Growth: A Snapshot
By Yunbo Zhou When China, the world’s largest trading nation, announced a re-opening to the world late last year after its heavy zero-covid lockdowns, many exporters from Argentina to South Korea rejoiced at the news. China’s multiple lockdowns complicated supply...
Legendary Samsung Chairman Dies, Leaving Legacy of Innovation
By Afshin Molavi "Change everything, except your wife and children." Those words by Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, uttered in 1993 at a low point in the company's history, have become enshrined in the lore of the South Korean conglomerate that has become a global icon...
Top Ten US State Economies vs. Global Economies
By Weiran Yuan A key feature of the global economy over the last four decades has been the rise of emerging markets, most notably China. The rise of the emerging world has rebalanced the global economic order. Still, despite the rise of new economic powers and a more...
China’s Undiplomacy: Why the ‘Wolf Warriors’ Fail to Convince
Guest Comment - By Oliver Stelling In September, China’s Foreign Minister embarked on a goodwill tour of Europe. Expectations were high that he would manage to repair strained ties with the bloc. It wasn’t meant to be. His charm offensive fell flat. Wang made no...
Middle East Business Telegraph Monitor – March 29
Middle East-North Africa Top Business Stories - March 29, 2020 GCC/MENA Slowdown - "Oil exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), especially the GCC countries are expected to experience a drastic slowdown in economic growth due to the impact of...
Interviews
Afshin Molavi interviews some of the world’s leading thinkers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and writers, in a series known as Tea with emerge85.
Charlie Lay: Demand Shocks and the Death of the Bull Market
I recently met Charlie Lay in November of 2019 at the CommerzBank Emerging Markets Macro Conference held in Dubai. Charlie is a Singapore-based senior economist and FX strategist at CommerzBank, one of Germany's largest banks and its biggest player in trade finance...
Robin Mills on Oil Prices, “Demand Destruction” and Iraq, Oman, and Iran Pain
I've known Robin Mills for more than a decade and he is always one of my favorite people to see on my Dubai visits. In one sitting, Robin will take you on a tour d'horizon of the Middle East energy landscape. It's not surprising to me that Foreign Policy called him...
Fareed Mohamedi: Wall Street Losing Romance With Shale
Fareed Mohamedi is one of the smartest guys I know on oil markets, the geopolitics of energy, the New Silk Road, and the political economies of oil-rich states. He has worked at Statoil, PFC Energy, Moody’s Investor Service, the Institute of International Finance, and...
Trailblazing Lebanese Journalist Reflects on War, Washington, and Watching History
When Kim Ghattas boarded a plane in Washington that would take her to Beirut in the year 2009, she was following a familiar path of millions of Lebanese living away from home: a return visit to the homeland. But there was nothing familiar about this homecoming:...
The Entrepreneur Changing the Face of Political Risk
When Ian Bremmer was 24 years old, he found himself in an enviable position: a newly minted PhD from Stanford, a teaching job, and a fellowship at a prestigious think tank. A life of academia and the mind awaited him. Instead, he chose a radical shake-up: He...